


World Meets Girlfriends

by sunkelles



Category: Girl Meets World
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Christmas, Christmas Sweaters, Established Relationship, F/F, Femslash, Fluff, Gravity Falls - Freeform, I'm going to make lots of references throughout so bare with me, Lesbian Maya Hart, Meeting the Parents, Minor Lucas/Farkle, Pansexual Riley Matthews, Riley is a tumblr fangirl, Romantic Paintings, Star Wars: The Force Awakens - Freeform, in a lot of chapters cause I'm Larkle trash too
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-12
Updated: 2015-12-25
Packaged: 2018-05-01 06:22:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 5,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5195465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunkelles/pseuds/sunkelles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>a rilaya drabble and oneshot collection</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Muse

**Author's Note:**

> Chapter 1: an art exhibition  
> Chapter 2: Maya meets the parents  
> Chapter 3: Riley gets bad news, Maya comforts her.  
> Chapter 4: Christmas sweaters  
> Chapter 5: coffee shop au  
> Chapter 6: The girls watch The Force Awakens and have feelings

Riley knew that Maya was excited about this exhibition, but she had no idea how big it was really going to be. The museum on campus has given her an entire wall for Maya to cover in paintings, each more beautiful than the last. There are wonderfully intricate paintings of doors, sunsets, skyscrapers, and starry skies. In the center of all of Maya’s artwork sits a single portrait. It’s of a woman with deep, brown hair and a smile on her face. From the woman’s hair light expands in every direction, like sunlight beaming through the clouds. It looks like the woman is sporting halo, like an angel. It almost makes Riley think that Maya thinks of this woman as the sun. It takes Riley much too long to realize that it’s supposed to be her.

“Maya,” she says, softly, emotionally. She has no idea how she should feel, but she’s filled with a million emotions, some with names and some without. This might be the most wonderful painting that Maya’s ever done, and it’s of her. Maya painted _her_. She painted her with sunlight erupting from her hair like a star, like she's the center of the universe. Maya painted her with all the passion she could muster, and then she put her right in the center of the exhibition. Riley can't process this information.

“I’m just your girlfriend,” Riley murmurs, almost awe-struck. Maya’s the beautiful one. Maya’s the artist, and Riley’s just the artist’s girlfriend.

“No,” Maya says, “Riles, you’re my _muse_.” She remembers a lesson that her father taught once, in history class. About how a person’s muse was their inspiration, their light, their _reason for being_. Riley can’t catch her breath as she makes the connection. Riley rushes forward, and bridges the gap between them. Then, she wraps her smaller girlfriend up in a hug.

“Um,” Maya asks, “Riles? You alright there?”

“Yeah,” Riley says, trying to fight back the damn happy tears that are threatening to fall,, “I-I’m really good.” Maya breaks their hug, and takes Riley by the hand.

“Good,” she says with a big, proud grin on her face, “I can’t wait to show you the rest.” Riley’s heart does a somersault inside of her, and she grasps her girlfriend’s hand a little tighter. Riley might not be an artist, but she knows Maya's her muse as well. 


	2. Maya Meets the Parents

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maya's known Riley's parents forever, so Maya doesn't understand why Riley insists that she has to introduce them.

Maya adjusts her dress slightly, and fidgets as she waits for Riley’s parents to let them into her childhood home.

“Riley,” Maya says, “do we really have to do this? Your parents have known me forever.” She doesn't mention that Riley's parents know her well enough that there's no way they're excited that she and Riley are dating. 

“But they haven’t met you as my girlfriend yet,” Riley says, with a smile that could light an entire galaxy. 

“This is ridiculous, Riles,” Maya says, "you don't have to reintroduce me as your girlfriend." _I really don't want you to_ , she thinks. 

Riley says, “There’s no turn back now.” Then she clicks the intercom, and Maya groans. There’s no getting out of this now.

“We’re here!” Riley says in excitement.

“Come on up,” Mr. Matthews says, “the door’s unlocked.” Maya supposes she shouldn’t have expected anything less. The Matthews are going to get robbed to hell and back someday because of how often they leave their door open. Riley grabs her hand, and intertwines their fingers. She feels a little better after that. Maya always feels so much more confident when they’re hand in hand.

She knows, instictively, that Mr. and Mrs. Matthews like her. Both of them have treated her much like a second daughter for much of her life, but that was when she was just Riley’s best friend who was a bit of a bad influence. Now she’s Riley’s girlfriend who is a bit of a bad influence, and that’s generally where parents draw the line. In general, a parent's qualifications for a good best friend are lower than they are for a romantic partner.

Maya knows that she’s not who anyone would dream their daughter would end up with, but she takes a deep breath and tries to calm down for the meeting. Riley’s right. They’ll have to do this eventually. Maya just feels better procrastinating on things until it’s too late to do them. Riley opens the door, and steps through the threshold. Maya follows her into the familiar Matthews family living room.

“Mother,” Riley says, formally, “father. I’d like you to meet my girlfriend, Maya Hart.” Mrs. Matthews holds out a hand to shake with a big grin on her face.

“It’s nice to meet you, Ms. Hart,” she says with a knowing smirk, “Riley has told us all about you.”

Maya blushes scarlet, and says, “You don’t have to pretend you don’t know me.”

“What are you talking about?” she asks, “I’ve never seen you before in my life.” For a moment, Maya almost buys it, but then Mr. Matthews cracks up. She remembers, then, that random amnesia is something that only happens in the soap operas her mother auditions for. 

“Stop messing with her, Topanga,” he says. The woman starts laughing then too, and Maya feels at least a little bit more comfortable.

They talk comfortably for the entire meal, just like old times and Maya finds herself confused. Shouldn’t they be scrutinizing her every move? Trying to figure out if she’s good enough for Riley? She’s fairly sure that she would fail that test, but there's a part of her that thinks that every person on earth would. She doesn't think that there's a person on this earth good enough for Riley, and she suspects that Riley's parents would agree. 

 

When they finish dinner, Riley and her mother go off to talk about something, her major, her mother’s latest court case, kittens? It really could be anything with Riley and her mother. But then Maya hears them turn on the tv, and realizes what should have been obvious. They’re going to watch the Mets game.

She stops Mr. Matthews before he can leave with them. 

He sends her a confused look, and asks, “What is it, Maya?”

“Aren’t you going to give me some sort of shovel talk?” Maya asks.

She does a poor imitation of Mr Matthew’s voice and says, “Don’t you dare hurt my daughter, or I’ll make sure you flunk out of high school. And college! And life!” He laughs at that, and then sends her a concerned look when she doesn’t join in.

“Is that what you think I sound like?” he asks, looking legitimately offended.

She sends shrugs and says, " _maybe?_ " He shakes his head in disappointment.

“Maya,” he says, “both Topanga and I are thrilled that you two are together.”

“Really?” Maya asks incredulously, “you’re thrilled that your daughter’s with me? _Me_?” Maya couldn’t imagine why anyone would ever be excited about that. She’s a bad influence, a disappointment. Maya’s someone that people leave.

“Of course,” he says, “we already know that you love Riley.” He pauses for a moment, trying to decide on how to put his thoughts into words. 

“We know that you’d never hurt Riley intentionally,” he says, “and that you’ll always have her best interests at heart. That’s everything that we ever wanted for her.” Maya feels all warm and fuzzy inside, and a little bit dizzy. She can’t find any words to say. Then, she's saved from having to say anything at all. 

From the couch she hears Riley shouting, “Guys! Guys guys guys guys guys!!!! The Mets are up! THEY’RE WINNING!” Maya has always thought that Riley’s passion about her sports teams is adorable, even though she’s never been much of a fan herself.

“Congrats, Riles,” Maya says as she walks into the living room and plops down on the couch beside her girlfriend. Mr. Matthews sits down in the chair, and the entire clan cheers loudly as the Mets score another run. She feels at home like this, and by the time they really get into the game Maya doesn’t remember why she was nervous about this in the first place.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I think that next chapter is either going to be a big, squad (Rilaya, Larkle and Zay) game of Risk, or a coffee shop au. 
> 
> Do you guys have any preference?


	3. Girl Says Goodbye to Gravity Falls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Riley gets some bad news.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so I just found out that my favorite show (Gravity Falls) is ending in two episodes. So I'm kind of sad. 
> 
> Here's Riley being sad about it too.

Maya can feel herself drifting off to sleep in the bay window. As she leans against the cold glass, her hair just barely pillows her head. She thinks that Riley’s pillow must be much more comfortable, because Riley’s pillow is her lap. Maya feels warm and loved, and can feel sleep consuming her. She welcomes it.

Then, she hears Riley shriek and can feel her flailing around on her lap. That wakes her up really quickly.

“Riles,” Maya says, “Riles, are you alright?” She’s worried that something bad happened, or that there’s an intruder or-

“They canceled Gravity Falls!” Riley shouts. She sits up and looks at Maya with big, sad puppy dog eyes. Maya can see the beginning of tears in her eyes.

“Oh,” Maya says, “oh god.” She can feel herself beginning to panic. The fact that Gravity Falls had to be ending soon was one of those things that Maya tried to hide from Riley, like Pluto’s planetary status or the fact that Hermione Granger wasn’t the protagonist of Harry Potter. She’s not sure how Riley’s going to handle this, but she knows that it won’t be good.

“Are you sure that it’s true?” Maya asks, “like, you can’t believe everything that you read on the internet.” She prays that it’s not from a credible source, like maybe Riley just read it on some random person’s tumblr? She remembers the time that Riley read a tumblr post that said Josh Peck had been in a car accident and freaked the fuck out until they looked it up and saw that it wasn’t true. Riley has a tendency not to double check things.

“It’s on Alex Hirsch’s twitter,” Riley groans, and then Maya knows that there’s no coming back from this. Gravity Falls is ending, and Riley is torn up. Maya loves the show. She’s thinks that it’s funny as hell and that the characters are really cool, but she doesn’t love it the way that Riley does. Riley sees herself in Mabel Pines, and that’s been hard on her lately. Maya remembers how torn up her girlfriend was over the hiatus, and then the Stans, and then the _snow globe incident_ , but now that she’s finding out that her favorite show is going away forever? Maya can totally understand why she’s worked up this time.

“Do you know why?” Maya asks, “did Disney just pull the plug or?”

“No,” Riley says, and she’s obviously trying to hold her tears in, “Alex said he wants it to end.”

“The writer wants to end it?” Maya asks incredulously. She couldn’t imagine an artist to stop making the things that they love. It would be like her deciding to stop drawing Riley or something.

“Alex said that he wanted the show to be like a summer,” Riley says, “ _finite_.” Her voice cracks a bit on that, and she looks petulant as she slams her phone into her lap.

“Well,” she says, looking Maya in the eyes, “I don’t like finite things.” Maya half expects Riley to ask her to get them to keep making it, but her girlfriend doesn’t. Instead, she leans her head against Maya’s shoulder.

“Why do things have to end?” she asks. Maya runs her fingers through Riley’s hair, and hopes that this thing that she has with Riley isn’t one of those things that have to end.

“Thing change,” Maya says softly, remembering a quote from that episode where everything went to hell, “Summer ends.”

“Don’t you make us parallel Mabel and Dipper,” Riley scolds.

“What?” Maya asks in genuine confusion.

“This was a conversation between Mabel and Dipper from the show,” Riley says.

“And?” Maya asks. Riley always likes it when she quotes the show. Maya’s really confused about whatever’s going on here.

“We’re girlfriends,” Riley says, “and they’re siblings and it’s just.. weird. It makes me think of _pinecest_.” She says the last word with the disdain she would bullies or the people that decided Pluto wasn’t a planet. Whatever this thing is, Riley must really hate it.

“ _Pincest?_ ” Maya asks. That sounds like one of those weird, ship names that Riley uses all the time. But she’s definitely not familiar with that one.

“I’ve seen stuff you can’t even imagine, peaches,” Riley says, sounding deathly serious.

“Are you gonna tell me what this is?” Maya asks.

“You _really_ don’t want to know,” Riley assures her. She lies against Maya, burying her face in Maya's shoulder. 

"I just wanted it to go on forever," she mumbles. 

“At least Gravity Falls had a good run?” Maya says, trying to make her girlfriend feel a little better.

“Maya,” Riley says, her voice muffled because she has not moved her head from it's spot on Maya's shoulder, “just let me lie here and be sad, please.”

“Alright, pumpkin,” Maya says, rolling her eyes fondly. She plays with the other girl’s hair, and hopes that her girlfriend will get to feeling better by morning, or at least by Monday. Riley won’t even get to enjoy the next episode if she dwells over the fact that this will be the penultimate installment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Afterwards, Maya googles pinecest and she wants to tear out her eyes. Like Oedipus.  
> And also, all the pluto theories in this fandom were wrong. Pluto is gravity falls


	4. Maya Meets Christmas Sweaters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Girlfriends being cute

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> References to Gravity Falls, because now that I've gotten the head-canon that Riley likes Gravity Falls it will never go away. 
> 
> Also, mentions of Larkle. Ah, Larkle

"There's no way that I'm wearing that," Maya says, looking on at the Christmas tree sweater that her girlfriend brought for her.

"Oh come on," Riley says, "it's a Christmas party. You have to dress up." She says this as if it's a fact of life, like the sky being blue or 2+2 equaling 4. Maya had no idea that Christmas sweaters were that universal.

"It's just you, me, Larkle and Zay," Maya says sarcastically, "that doesn't make it a party."

"Lucas and Farkle are two individual people, you know," Riley says. Maya laughs at that. For the past three years, she hasn't been so sure, since the boys have been joined at the hip. They were inseparable even before they started dating, but now it's gotten to the point where they're so lovey-dovey it's almost annoying. She wonders how Zay feels third-wheeling with them now.

"Maya?" Riley asks, sounding a bit concerned. Maya is pulled abruptly out of her thoughts, and has honestly forgotten what they were talking about.

Then she remembers the party, and the outfit, and says "I'm not wearing the sweater."

"But it will look so cute with mine," Riley says, pointing to her own Rudolf the Red-nosed reindeer sweater.

"These look like sweaters Mabel Pines would wear," Maya complains. Riley looks highly offended.

"Don't insult Mabel," Riley says, defensively. Riley hates it when people insult Mabel, because she takes it as a personal affront to her character.

"I just meant that Mabel's sense of style is-"

"Adorable," Riley suggests.

"I was going to say awful," Maya says.

"Maya," Riley says, sounding irritated, "you're not giving this a chance."

"Riles," Maya says, "there's no way that I'm putting that sweater on." Riley looks at her with her signature puppy dog eyes.

"Goddamn it, Riles," Maya says.

Riley sticks with her puppy dog eyes, and says, "Please Maya? Please?" She leans in a little closer, to the point where their lips are almost touching. That should be considered cheating.

"Please?" Riley asks.

"Fine," Maya mumbles, and Riley giggles as she engulfs her girlfriend in a hug.

"We're going to be so cute," she says, excitedly. Maya supposes that she can't resent the sweater too much. If it makes Riley happy, it doesn't matter all that much of the boys giggle about it.

 

By the time that they're ready to go over to the party, Maya is wearing the deep green sweater, which has silver tinsel and little, rainbow ornaments adorning it. Maya has to admit, even though it's tacky it's kind of charming as well. Riley's is even cuter. It's the same brown as her hair, with ears, eyes, a mouth, antlers, and a big red light bulb in the middle that lights up just like his nose did in the song.

"Let's knock them dead," Riley says. Maya laughs, but takes her girlfriend's hand. She doubts if they'll knock their best friends dead with anything but laughter, but if Riley keeps smiling like that for the whole time, Maya will count this night as a success.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Might or might not write the actual party.


	5. Maya Meets the Barista

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The college coffee shop au that everyone needed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes  
> 1\. The girls have never met before this  
> 2\. Maya grew up in Texas and was bffs with Lucas and Zay  
> 3\. Riley and Farkle were bbffs. (Best bi friends forever) as the only members of the squad still in NYC. They dated at one point but it didn't work out

The early afternoon sunlight beams down from the sky, and Maya wonders why she decided that "exploring the city" would be a fun way to spend her classless afternoon. People hustle and bustle around her, frantically trying to get to wherever they're going. It's hard to just saunter around New York City.

People don't relax here the same way they do back in Texas. But they also aren't nearly as conservative or homophobic, so Maya supposes that she should just deal with it. Her lesbian ass can take a little hustle and bustle as long as it's accepted more.

She sees a sign that reads "Topanga's" that looks a little like a coffee shop. One of the hipster ones as opposed to a corporate one, like Starbucks. Maya could use a cup of coffee, and those hipster coffee shops seem like good places to draw. She's willing to give this one a go.

The barista is adorable, and Maya can barely remember her own name when the girl asks her what she would like, let alone a complicated coffee order.

"Uh," Maya says, "I dunno." God, she sounds like an idiot. The girl's eyes crinkle when she laughs.

"First time?" She asks.

"Um," she says, "yeah... What would you suggest?"

"My favorite is the peppermint mocha," Riley says with a big grin, "but that's not in season yet." Her brown eyes twinkle with amusement.

"What's your favorite flavor?" She asks Maya.

"Caramel," Maya says. She says it the way that she always has. Two syllables, car-mull.

"You might like the Caramel Macchiato, then," the barista says. Car-a-mel, three syllables, which is somehow really cute for some reason.

"I'll take it," Maya says. She grabs a sharpie off the table and a bright, green, paper cup

"What's your name?" She asks. Maya's still so stuck in her "cute girl" haze that the words don't even register.

"For the cup?" The girl elaborates.

"Maya," she says, "sorry."

"Maya spelled like M-I-A?" Riley asks, "are you missing in action?"

"No," Maya says, though she realizes that would be cool, "it's M-A-Y-A." The barista scribbles it down, and then she starts to leave. Maya has to sneak a peak at her name tag quickly, before she looses that chance forever. "Riley: I like rainbows and Pluto."

Maya's face turns scarlet as she finds herself wondering the reason that the other girl likes rainbows. Would she just advertise the fact that she's gay at her place of employment? Maya's only been in New York two weeks and she has no fucking clue whether or not that would fly.

She sits down at a small table by the window, and starts sketching Riley as she takes another customer's order. She's creepy, alright? But the other girl's just so beautiful, and Maya's never been able to resist drawing beautiful things.

"One caramel macchiato for Maya," Riley says, and Maya scrambles to the counter to collect her drink.

"Thank you," she says, sending the barista a little smile.

"I'll see you tomorrow," Riley says. It's something that employees say all the time, and Maya knows that it doesn't have to be flirty, and it probably isn't. But her heart still does a somersault and she says,

"Yeah, definitely." She grabs her coffee, and sets it down on the table beside her art supplies. She takes sips of the drink often enough to not look suspicious, and to justify her hour long use of the table. The drawing isn't finished, and she knows that it will take at least another day. She decides that's as good of an excuse as any to come back and get coffee again tomorrow.

* * *

 

 

 

Maya ditches her college algebra lecture the next day to come see Riley again. This is completely fine, she reasons, because she took this class in high school. The credit just didn't transfer properly because her local community college is shitty and lies, and her art school is a little pretentious and really expensive. She doesn't mind though, because she got herself a full ride. She just hopes that she doesn't lose it, trying to chase after the cutest barista that ever walked the earth.

She walks right up to the counter and sees Riley smiling at her.

"I came back," Maya announces.

"You didn't have to come back today," Riley says, blushing, "it's just an advertising thing."

"I wanted to," Maya says, and she realizes how pathetic that sounds.

"The coffee was really good," she adds, trying to make herself sound less pitiful.

"I'm glad that you enjoyed it that much, Maya," she says, airily, and Maya's face catches fire. _She remembered my name,_ she thinks, dizzily. Riley, the cute, amazing barista remembered her name. She's so fucked.

"What can I get you today?" Riley asks.

"I'd like a strawberry, peach French soda, please," Maya says, and Riley grins at her.

"Shaking it up," she says, and it's not really a question.

"Yeah," Maya says, "somedays you just need a change." Riley sets to work preparing her drink, and Maya settles down at one of the small tables while she waits for her drink.

The barista that calls her name this time isn't Riley, to her disappointment. But Maya goes up and gets her drink, and she nurses it as she works on het drawing. She drinks and draws for an hour straight, and realizes that if she stays any longer, she'll start to look weird. She packs up her art supplies, and throws her cup away on the way out.

Maya has nearly finished her drawing, but she knows that if she wants it to be perfect she'll have to come back tomorrow. Maya knows that she's just using that as an excuse, but she doesn't really care. Topanga's has a nice atmosphere, and God, Riley's just so cute. Maya's so gay. And weak. And maybe a little bit of a pathetic stalker. But she tells herself that tomorrow is the last time she'll stop by looking for Riley. She can wean herself off of this obsession, and then go back to her normal life. Her normal, lonely life where she doesn't frequent coffee shops just to see cute girls. It sounds boring, but she'll have to manage.

* * *

 

 

 

So the next day, Maya skips yet another class so she can go to the shop at exactly 2:30 in the afternoon, when Riley will almost certainly be there. She would feel guilty about this but the class is history of art, and that class is boring as fuck anyways. The possibility of seeing Riley trumps her grade in there. She walks straight up to the counter, and (thank God) Riley is there.

"Fancy seeing you here," Maya says, and she realizes that it's probably the worst line in the book, but Maya doesn't care. It gets Riley to giggle.

"So what will Maya be having today?" She asks, leaning against the counter.

"I'd just like a vanilla hazelnut latte, please," Maya says.

"Alright," Riley says, "that'll be $4:79 please." Maya takes a five out of her purse and hands it to Riley. She drops the change in the tip container.

"It's a pleasure doing business with you," Riley says, in a tone that almost sounds flirty. Maya's fairly sure that it's just hopeful thinking. Maya sits down at what has become her usual table, and waits for someone to announce her order.

"One vanilla hazelnut latte for Maya," Riley says, in a happy, chipper sort of tone. Maya gets up, and makes her way quickly over to the counter.

"Thank you," she says as she grabs her cup. She glances it over, swiftly, and realizes that it doesn't have her name on it. The only thing written on it is a phone number, flanked by hearts. Maya blushes as she realizes that it's intended for her.

"Riley?" She asks, a little frantically, "is this one mine?" She blushes as she realizes that she's never called Riley by her name before. She sounds like a creepy stalker now.

"Yeah," Riley says, not seeming to notice that Maya is a creepy stalker, "Vanilla hazelnut latte."

"Is it supposed to have-"

"My phone number?" Riley asks, sounding a little amused, "Yes,"

Maya says, cheeks blushing scarlet, "what am I supposed to do with it?"

"Call it? Text it?" Riley asks, sounding baffled that Maya hadn't picked up on that yet.

"Oh," Maya says, clutching her coffee tightly in her hand.

"I like you, Maya," Riley says, bluntly, "and I'm like ninety percent sure that you like me too." She takes a deep breath, and tries to find her voice.

"That's a reasonable assumption," Maya says.

"Shoot me a text," Riley says, "and we'll work out a time to meet outside of work, okay?"

"Okay," Maya says, "definitely. It's a date." She blushes scarlet again, and notices that a lot of the other customers have started to stare. She makes her way to her seat, and shoots Riley a text.

"It's Maya," she says, "what time works for you?" She doesn't care that Riley won't be able to respond until later. She feels better having sent it. Then, she gathers up her art supplies, and takes a sip of her coffee as she starts to walk away from Topanga's. She thinks that she might be able to finish the drawing later. It's a lot easier to draw someone when you get to know your muse.


	6. Maya the Force Be With You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maya loves Star Wars. Riley? Not so much. But they watch the Force Awakens and feelings happen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!! I wrote this last night instead of sleeping. Should I have written actual Christmas fluff? Probably. But the Force Awakens is my life right now so I wanted it to be their life too. The views of the characters do not necessarily represent my own personal views. 
> 
> MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE MOVIE

Riley is always the one who is always excitable and hyper. She’s the one whose emotions control her, and Maya is the one who looks on in fond exasperation, maybe even rolling her eyes at her girlfriend’s antics.

This doesn’t happen when they see the _Force Awakens_. Riley has never been much of a _Star Wars_ fan. The movies are alright, but Riley’s more into romance and mystery. Maya loves _Star Wars_ more than air. Even the prequels, which are universally disliked. Her mother took the time to watch all of the movies with her when she was a kid, which is probably a good portion of the reason for this. But Maya also adores sci-fi, so she might have ended up loving it even without that emotional attachment.

Maya and Farkle force them to marathon the movies the weekend before the movie premieres, and it would have been a manageable, three movie marathon if Maya didn’t insist they start with the _Phantom Menace._ Riley is sick and tired of Anakin Skywalker by the time that the prequels are over, and she’s sick and tired of Luke before a _New Hope_ is over. Han is fun, and Leia is admittedly pretty hot. So she watches them without too many complaints. She thinks that the new one will be pretty cool. Or at least alright. She can definitely sit through it for Maya.

  
Maya demands that they go see it on Thursday night at the very first possible showing. Riley’s still _Star Wars_ -ed out from Saturday, but she agrees. Maya has suffered through plenty of things she’s not overly fond of for Riley, so Riley returns the favor.

They get to the movie an hour and a half early, and the theater is already half full. Their popcorn is gone within twenty minutes, and Riley sighs. She goes up to get a refill of popcorn, and by the time she gets back there’s still an hour before the film starts.

“I can’t believe that we’ve still got an hour before this thing starts,” Riley grumbles.

“I’ve been waiting this movie for thirty years,” Maya tells her, “you can wait an hour.”

“You’re fifteen years old,” Riley says.

“Thirty years,” Maya repeats, and Riley giggles. She chucks a kernel of popcorn at Maya, and her girlfriend just grins. Waiting an hour for a movie won’t be all that bad together. The trailers eventually start playing, and Riley decides that she’s not interested in seeing any of the movies, even _Captain America: Civil War_ , which Maya will undoubtedly drag her to.

Maya gasps when the words “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away” appear on the screen, and Riley sighs in relief. It’s finally starting. Apparently, desert planets are popular in the galaxy. In the original trilogy and the prequels, they spent a lot of time on Tatooine. Now they’re spending a lot of time on Jakku, which honestly seems like a Tatooine lookalike to Riley. 

The movie feels a lot like a New Hope with better graphics in Riley’s opinion, but Maya seems to get more and more excited as the movie goes on. When Han Solo appears, Riley groans. She doesn’t want to get invested in this movie. But she does like Han, and she’s bound to end up caring, at least a little.

Then it turns out that the villain is their son, which is just evil writing if you ask Riley. Because now she’s actually emotionally invested in this. Then Leia comes on-screen, looking like a well-aged wine and she asks her runway husband to try to save their son. And Riley’s really pretty torn up about it. She didn’t want to get invested in this movie.

Then, Kylo Ren shoves his lightsaber through his father’s heart and Riley hears herself scream, and grab for Maya’s hand. Maya actually laughs at her, because she’s somehow unaffected by this tragedy before her. Han Solo caresses his son’s face, and then falls into the void. Riley can barely pay attention to the rest of the movie. It’s fine. The fight scene is engaging and the graphics are good, but Han is dead. The universe is a hologram, and Han Solo is dead. Even when Rey finds Luke, that’s all that Riley can think of. She might have a bit of an obsession.

  
They walk out of the theater in relative silence as the crowd buzzes, talking in hushed tones about the events of the movie. Neither of them speak until they are outside and on their way back to Riley’s.

“I didn’t expect you to get so into this movie,” Maya says.

“They killed off Han,” Riley says blankly.

“Riley-”

“They killed off Han,” Riley says again.

“I know, Riles,” Maya says, “we watched the same movie.” Riley doesn’t like much about these movies, but she liked Han. And she likes Leia. Then they made their son together evil and had him kill his father. Riley is never getting invested in one of these movies ever again.

“Alright,” Maya says, “our friend group in this movie. Who’d be who?”

“Can I be Finn?” Riley asks, “I liked Finn.”

“Alright,” Maya says, “but I’m Poe then.”

“Poe?” Riley asks, “shouldn’t you be Rey? So we can hold hands. And be love interests?” Riley is sure that those two will end up as a couple at some point. They’re adorable.   
“The jacket thing was way more romantic,” Maya says. Riley sends her a look, because she thought that the hand-holding and forehead kiss was plenty romantic, but she lets it lie.

“Zay would be Rey then,” she says, resigning herself to the fact that Maya does not ship her ship.

“Why?” Maya asks.

“Because it rhymes,” Riley says, as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world.

“Farkle has to be Kylo- Ben. Whatever his name is,” Maya says.

“Why’s Farkle poop face traitor guy?” Riley asks. She likes Farkle way too much to make him that character. She hates that character with every fiber of her being for doing the deed-which-shall-not-be-named. (Patricide. It’s called patricide.)

“Because of the world domination thing,” Maya says, and Riley has to admit that she had a good point.

“Who would Lucas be?” Riley asks.

“There aren’t many left,” Maya says, “he could be Maz.”

“I don’t think that he seems like a wise old woman,” Riley says.

“How about Phasma?” Maya suggests.

“Alright,” Riley agrees. That at least puts Lucas and Farkle on the same side, which might be as realistic as they’re going to get on that front.

  
“I can’t believe they killed Han,” Riley mutters again, angrily, as she and Maya walk home.

“I can’t believe that you got so invested,” Maya says happily. Riley smiles at her. She likes Han Solo pretty well, but she likes being able to talk to Maya about things that she likes even better.

She can bear becoming a _Star Wars_ geek for a few months if it makes Maya happy.

 

 


End file.
